MORE THAN “Just the Money, Stupid”

My wife and I are in the process of selling our home in Northern Minnesota. We are both 68 years old and we have been married since we were 21. We were married in 1971.

The time sure has flown by. That time 40 years ago seems so fresh and five minutes ago is not even a memory. Maybe life isn’t lived on a continuum by is lived in chunks.

Maybe it is just that I can’t adjust to losing a faculty that was once so dependable. When several of my faculties have been lost my living gets pretty disjointed.

Several things are hurtling at me as I write this. How to find an apartment we can afford, one level, two bedrooms (I have to one for my computer and writing Stuff!).

We may have to face losing our two Ragdoll cats and our Landseer Newfoundland. Losing Berkley will be heart-breaking for me more so than the cats. Berkey is rarely more than 5 feet from my side and is a Certified Companion.

Mango, The Headmaster, a flame point ragdoll on his throne stairway banisterBerkely, the Companion a very faithful friend indeedLacey, The Queen on her Throne. Seal Point Ragdoll

That’s what brought this topic up. Was I so out of touch that I seriously misjudged the future? (I did but humor for a few minutes please).

Have the current economic times changed so drastically? (They have!)

Two years after we were discharged from the United States Army (I was drafted in 1971. Yes, I received my draft notice the day we were returned from our honeymoon!)

The American Middle Class has been DECIMATED!

Great question but it is different for every state and probably within select areas within a state.

Since I’m a Minnesota boy I will start there for a quick comparison.

In 2015 the Minnesota median household income was $60,792.

For the Minnesota middle class, the lower boundary was $40,468 and the upper boundary was $121,404. (Minnesota state income is the tenth highest in case you are dying to know).

For comparison, Mississippi‘s median household income was $37,963. The lower boundary of the middle class was $25,309 and the upper was $75,926.(Mississippi is the last state on the list.)

It is hard to speak in generalities. However, I am going for it.

In 2014 The New York Times (“The American Middle Class is no longer the world’srichest”) stated that using the 20th percentile for comparison, Americans in 2014 earned less than Norweigns, Canadians, Dutch, Germans, Swedes, and Finns (comparing those in each country’s respective 20th percentile).

For comparison, three decades earlier Americans earned more than anyone except Canadians.

Income Inequality is a Conversation Starter

Let us start with a smart man (and a very wealthy one – one of the three richest men in America. (People with a net worth of more than $1 million represent just 0.7% of the world’s population but they have 41% of the wealth)

In the United States three menWarren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos combined, hold more wealth than 50% of the population – 160 million US citizens.

The alarming detail is that 63 million, one-fifth of the population have zero or even negative net worth.

Is there some understanding of why I am in a funk? It isn’t just me.

I just read an article while eating a breakfast muffin at McDonald’s.

Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris had some nasty snafus last week. By the way, these two US Senators are projected to run for president in 2020.

In particular, Ms. Harris, while addressing a primarily black audience mentioned income inequality as a financial issue. Well, that didn’t play well to this audience. They address income inequality as only one slice of this ugly pie.

Let’s go international with this

Inequality is not just a financial issue, as Senator Harris quickly learned.

There is a great ray of light shining

a commitment from 158 billionaires to give away at least half of their wealth. It seems Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Richard Branson have the same definition of success.

Others? Not so much

They cannot justify hoarding their wealth! What are they going to do with it anyway?

I realize it is a way of keeping score but once everybody knows your score what game is left to be played?

I have read posts on Facebook emphasizing that when people my age (68) were growing up new schools were built, the interstate highway system was built.

Also, there was not a teetering inverted pyramid of uber-wealthy at the top.

Now?

Now we cannot even maintain our highways and byways. Our bridges. Our everything!

Trump proposed $1 Trillion in spending on infrastructure. The budget that was presented to Congress proposed $200 Billion in infrastructure funds. But it also CUT $275 Billion in CURRENT spending levels!

According to Kevin DeGood, the director of infrastructure at the Center for AmericanProgress the budget reductions to the Highway Trust Fund alone is a “fiscal two-by-four to the face.”

So, we’ve looked at INCOME INEQUALITY. This inequality exists not just in the United States. It is dysfunction that encompasses the whole globe.

So, we’ve surveyed INCOME INEQUALITY. It is not just an economic issue but a global issue of sustenance: health, education, housing, jobs. People need a sense of self-worth to survive in this world.

So, we’ve defined INCOME INEQUALITY as gluttony by a very few people around the world but especially in the United States.We use 8.7 global hectares of the world’s resources. Compare that to Ghana, Guatemala, Nicaragua just to name a few examples.

Can we really justify our gluttony when we can’t even compare to many countries using life expectancy and literacy as standards of civilization?

Which country is the undeveloped one?

Or do we have an underdeveloped ethos of what is proper and just?

How can we look down on other countries? How can we justify the gluttony-the third of the seven deadly sins!

The United States has outstripped and cast off our moral compass in our headlong rush to wealth. We have lost our capacity to keep our growth on an equitable path. We don’t enrich everyone so that ALL Americans can live with a degree of self-worth and prosperity.

The Moral Compass. Good Evil Wrong Right

Perhaps we do need to de-develop our sense of those ‘things’ we think we need so that we feel self-fulfilled. Then we won’t gobble up far more than our share of the world’s resources.

Perhaps I do deserve to feel a little out of sorts and funky because my income hasn’t kept pace with any standard of measure of the growth in US wealth.

Perhaps I don’t need to feel overwhelmed at the prospect for our future and its needs!